N.Y. Bottle Bill Killed in Budget Legislation

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Food retailers dodged a bullet here this week when an onerous "bottle bill" was killed from the state's budget legislation. The bill, included in the budget by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, proposed expanding the state‘s 5-cent deposit to several more bottle types and would have required that unclaimed deposits be sent to a state environmental fund. “We were very pleased it was not included as part of the budget,” said Mike Rosen, senior vice president at the New York Food Industry Alliance. “We view it as strictly a money grab.”